The House leadership continues to treat Foley’s predatory advances towards underage pages as a partisan issue. The Note reports that Speaker Dennis Hastert held a meeting today “to review ways to protect pages” but did not include Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), the Democratic member of the three-person House Page Board:
The Speaker will continue his effort to rid the GOP majority of Foley’s taint by meeting with the Clerk of the House, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), and his staff today to review ways to protect pages while they are serving in the nation’s Capitol. The Speaker will also discuss how Congress can protect pages after their program concludes.
The Clerk of the House, Karen Haas, is a former aide of Hastert’s. Both Hastert and Shimkus are part of the problem. They were both told about Foley’s inappropriate behavior in late 2005 and did virtually nothing to stop it.
This meeting will not “rid the…majority of Foley’s taint.” It simply reinforces the notion that the House leadership is more interested in protecting themselves politically than protecting the children under their care.
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